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Giving notice without having a new place lined up seems foolish to me. What if you don't find something?
easy. You can rent storage place for $30/month, put your stuff in, rent studio in one of those nice places where you pay by the week or by the month. Like extended stay USA and others. Very nice, clean places, with small kitchen, TV, air conditioning, etc... and take your time looking.
I've done that before. no problem. The rent for these places is actually less than the rent of a 1br apt. Sometimes I think if I did not have so much junk, I'd live for all the time.
I twice in my life rejected a lease renewal for 2 apts when i wanted out-Without having a place lined up. As I have no kids, wife, pets etc I felt mobile and bold enough to just go. It was a risk, but worked out great. Although it was risky. It certainly is a sounder choice to have someplace to go. I may do this a 3rd time at the end of the year yet again.
People move for a wide variety of reasons. Some may feel cramped, have bad memories (I have moved due to both) or may be in an unsafe area, or living with another and unhappy. in extreme cases, the "pack and go" may be the lesser of 2 evils if it gets a person out of a negative situation and gives them a renewed feeling of control and motivation.
I always line up a new place first. I would rather play double rent for a month or two than be homeless.
This for me too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sonarrat
I give 30 days conditional on finding a new place to rent, and put this in writing. I've always managed to find something, but if I didn't, then I would simply send a check for another month together with another 30-day notice. Of course you would have to be on a month-to-month to try this, but just because you give a 30-day notice to your landlord doesn't mean you can't change your mind, as long as there's still a valid lease -- and as long as they haven't lined up new tenants for your apartment in the meantime!
As one other person said, as a landlord, I would not accept this either. It entirely defeats the purpose of having tenants give 30 days notice. The reason for that is to try to line up a potential renter to replace after move out. We aim for no more than a week vacancy between tenants. By having the notice conditional, you can't line anything at all up. That is way too much of a nightmare. We would have responded that we will accept your non-conditional 30 day notice now, and expect you out at the end of the month, or your non-conditional 30 day notice after you find a place, and expect the next month's rent paid.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sonarrat
I give 30 days conditional on finding a new place to rent, and put this in writing. I've always managed to find something, but if I didn't, then I would simply send a check for another month together with another 30-day notice. Of course you would have to be on a month-to-month to try this, but just because you give a 30-day notice to your landlord doesn't mean you can't change your mind, as long as there's still a valid lease -- and as long as they haven't lined up new tenants for your apartment in the meantime!
Actually, while I understand your intentions are good, and I think you mean your comments in the case where the LL is OK with an extension. But for the folks who aren't well versed in legalities, here is the basic law on this.
Once you have given the Landlord 30 day notice you are required to vacate unless you agree to an extension. If you do not you become a hold over tenant subject to immediate eviction. There is no 3 day notice, etc. This is not a "pay rent or quit." You already "quit" you just didn't leave. The LL (if your LL was me) will file and serve you notice the afternoon you stay over and haul you into court in a few days.
You can not in most states by law issue a 30 day notice conditional upon terms, unless terms are agreed in writing by the landlord. Of course if the LL is OK with it, then it's no problem. But otherwise it leaves the LL in a state of perpetual tenant loss without knowing when they can re-rent the unit.
And once you issue a 30 day notice you can NOT just change your mind, unless the LL agrees and you write up a new agreement or a temporary extension.
In reality in many cases a LL doesn't have the unit rented and will be OK with your extending by a month or two. After all we are in the business of renting apts, not kicking out people who pay the rent. I'd far rather have a good paying tenant on a temporary basis than the risk of re-renting to someone I have to evict in a month or two.
So I'd say probably 90% of the time I'd be OK with it, so long as I had sufficient notice, like 2 weeks, before I had started trying to fill the unit.
Early communication is the best policy and solves most issues before they become problems.
I give 30 days conditional on finding a new place to rent, and put this in writing. I've always managed to find something, but if I didn't, then I would simply send a check for another month together with another 30-day notice. Of course you would have to be on a month-to-month to try this, but just because you give a 30-day notice to your landlord doesn't mean you can't change your mind, as long as there's still a valid lease -- and as long as they haven't lined up new tenants for your apartment in the meantime!
Actually, while I understand your intentions are good, and I think you mean your comments in the case where the LL is OK with an extension. But for the folks who aren't well versed in legalities, here is the basic law on this.
Once you have given the Landlord 30 day notice you are required to vacate unless you agree to an extension. If you do not you become a hold over tenant subject to immediate eviction. There is no 3 day notice, etc. This is not a "pay rent or quit." You already "quit" you just didn't leave. The LL (if your LL was me) will file and serve you notice the afternoon you stay over and haul you into court in a few days.
You can not in most states by law issue a 30 day notice conditional upon terms, unless terms are agreed in writing by the landlord. Of course if the LL is OK with it, then it's no problem. But otherwise it leaves the LL in a state of perpetual tenant loss without knowing when they can re-rent the unit.
And once you issue a 30 day notice you can NOT just change your mind, unless the LL agrees and you write up a new agreement or a temporary extension.
In reality in many cases a LL doesn't have the unit rented and will be OK with your extending by a month or two. After all we are in the business of renting apts, not kicking out people who pay the rent. I'd far rather have a good paying tenant on a temporary basis than the risk of re-renting to someone I have to evict in a month or two.
So I'd say probably 90% of the time I'd be OK with it, so long as I had sufficient notice, like 2 weeks, before I had started trying to fill the unit.
Early communication is the best policy and solves most issues before they become problems.
There is a little contradiction in sonarrat's post which makes it a little difficult to understand what he is trying to suggest. The first part says that he gives a conditional 30 day notice and that condition is he finds another place to rent. So, for example, on the 28th of the month he finds new place, he is gone on the 30th. But come the 30th and he has not found the place, he, at his option, renews the contract for 30 more days conditional on him finding a new place. Why would a landlord sign such a conditional 30 day notice? What is in it for him?
The last phrase of sonarrat's post "as long as they haven't lined up new tenants for your apartment in the meantime!" suggests that there really is not 'condition' tied to the 30 day notice, that it is just in agreement by both tenant and landlord at the end of the 30 days to extend it by a month if it works for both. That is common.
Preceding that last phrase, the implication is at the end of the 30 days, it is the tenant's choice on whether to continue.
Let's turn it around, say the landlord gives the tenant 30 day notice to vacate conditional on the landlord finding a new tenant. At the end of the 30 days, if the landlord has not found a new tenant, the existing tenant is bound to stay for another 30 days. The tenant would not know until the end of the month if he is staying or not. I don't think any tenant would sign such a thing and even if they did, he would probably just give his own 30 day notice so he can leave at the end of the month. That would negate the original condition in the landlord's 30-day notice.
To conclude, I don't think any landlord would sign the condition sonarrat originally proposed but would just accept a 30 day notice. At the end of the 30 days, if the tenant has not found a new place and the landlord has not found a new tenant, it may continue another 30 days.
I know this is an old post, but I am having this problem now. Everything is available now. I can't do now and I do not want to wait until it is *MY* now to find something. It is frustrating. Very little is posted in advance.
I cannot find anything that is available in the future, only things that are available now. It is serious problem for me because I don't want to be rushed into a place, but at this rate, looks like that is exactly what will happen if I don't want to pay double rent.
I cannot find anything that is available in the future, only things that are available now. It is serious problem for me because I don't want to be rushed into a place, but at this rate, looks like that is exactly what will happen if I don't want to pay double rent.
A smart landlord will not list advance vacancies until they are reasonably sure that the place will be vacant and available. Since many states allow tenants to have a specific time period to renew, its near impossible to say a place will be avalablel in 5 months if the tenants right to renewal is 3 months from end of term. About the only sure way of advance rentals is NEW (new contrsuction, newly renovated, new to market, etc) units. You also have the ever danager of a holdover. AND, don;t foregt that with advanced rentals, the landlord is taking almost all the risk because you have the ability to back out (and many do).
I am looking 15-30 days in advance, not 5 months. There is just nothing. Everything is now. I can afford double rent, but it is basically just flushing money down the toilet. :/
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It depends on the person's situation..
